School Committee: May 7, 2020

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

1:35 adults who also have their own heart disease so it could help save your life from heart attack or stroke

4:21 i just want to test my audio we we changed the internet

4:34 it’s not pixelated anymore like it used to be no significantly better

5:07 megan i put you as a co-host as well so that you can help me out with the um admission participant admission sounds good i’ll be right on okay

5:32 sarah was there a memo for the re-entry portion

5:42 i don’t think so i think i can’t seem to find i think bill or is it just a discussion i think he noted that it’s going to be a discussion

6:26 oh oh did you just say something to me oh i just said i liked your picture oh thank you it’s you with the sign that says you and the dog thank you

8:34 it’s not working give me a question yet no sorry i did not um hear your response so i will do that right now sorry yes please all right i think you should be allowed to now

11:40 if anybody would like to make public comment uh put your name and address into the chat function we’ve still got a few people coming in so i’m going to wait to start the meeting officially

13:53 i’m going to continue to wait a couple more minutes just as people filter in um if anybody wants to make a public comment then i see your name if anybody else wants to make one if they could put their name and address into the chat function

16:27 okay i think i’m going to get us started um i’m a little concerned that my connection is not great um okay so hopefully everyone can hear me um i’m going to call the meeting to order at 706.

17:03 uh uh first one i want to give i just want to acknowledge that as teacher appreciation week work hard year around to make everything so special for our students so i wanted to thank them and acknowledge that um and then i also wanted to acknowledge that all the seniors and um just as we approach this time of year that’s normally so special for them um just acknowledge them and and thank them for um just being troopers through all of this and just acknowledge that

17:50 absolutely thanks sarah um i would also like to acknowledge um sort of the town level of of everything they have been helpful in kind of getting some of the zoom issues figured out and just working with them and getting getting some getting the platform figured out and allowing us to sort of jump on when needed so i just i shout out to them

18:57 sarah fox and actually the um you know the other day that you know about gone down this road of unchartered waters i’d just like to echo the sentiments of uh dan and everyone else and really recognize everything that’s going on with the teach teachers and additionally um as sarah said you know as the seniors are starting to move forward there’s been some really nice um initiatives to have the lawn banners posted out in front of the homes for the seniors and everybody who’s been working on that so i think that’s really great that everybody’s working to make that possible for the seniors

19:50 all right um if nobody else has anything i think that brings us to dan howells dan you want to give us a or fill us in on how things are going on the student level yeah yeah um so i believe since our since the last meeting uh school was cancelled for the rest of the year so um since then as well there have been an increase in the zoom meetings from different teachers and each subject now has a uh scheduled time um and day every week so uh i could have english on wednesdays at 10 so on and so forth for the rest of uh

20:35 everyone’s classes and those have been really helpful um for you know just keeping on top of things and having teachers accessible for questions i t some teachers have been doing more like normal lectures and some have just been kind of having questions about upcoming assignments and things like that so that has been very helpful um also uh going with the end of uh or school’s cancellation uh all events have been cancelled so the proms um the sophomore semi was canceled uh which would have taken place a bit earlier in the year um and uh it’s students are definitely

21:22 disappointed by them yes but i think something i’ve noticed and that’s a very positive thing is that people are very understanding about the nature of this issue and that while it is unfortunate that we’ll have to miss our proms graduations and things like that it’s more important for the safety of everyone um you know at school and in town and beyond that uh every i think people have a good grasp on the scale of this issue and are willing to give in a little bit as they recognize that it’s not something worth risking

22:13 great thanks dan i’m glad to hear that yeah things are kind of evening out and everybody’s falling into a bit of a groove

22:33 i’m sorry i uh it’ll end up being accommodation i know i’m a little out of order okay i’m just sitting listening to dan dan’s report and it reminds me that uh how impressed i’ve been all year with uh with dan’s participation as the student representative he has been a regular attendee at our meeting uh his reports are a full they’re timely they’re very informative uh and dan i just want to say thank you to you you really do bring value into these meetings

23:19 these meetings these meetings with your participation so i got to commend you and thank you for that well thank you very much i appreciate that well said bill i totally agree i think we all

23:44 all right that brings us up to public comment um if anybody wants to make a public comment please put their name and address in the chat function that way i know when to call on you right now we have ben berman go ahead ben

24:03 thanks sarah ben berman 43 crestwood road chair of stintom good evening uh school committee uh administrators and fellow citizens first and foremost uh hope is finding you all safe and healthy and uh you know doing okay in this extremely difficult time uh second uh talked about out of order uh i don’t want to steal anybody’s thunder but public comments first so i’m gonna steal some thunder uh i just wanted to take a moment and provide a brief overview of what was just the odds of that uh gotta love technology uh second i’d like to take a moment to provide a brief overview what was discussed this morning at fincom school liaison meeting with two members of the school committee

24:49 sarah fox and megan taylor two members of vincom emily becker uh and myself uh jackie golfbacker chair of selectmen jason silva town administrator along with our school team our outstanding school team of michelle cresta and bill mcgaldov uh in summary it’s terrific news uh and i realize it’s tough to deliver terrific news where we are right now um with you know the pandemic and being in our homes and it’s pretty surreal um but regarding the fy 20 budget it is terrific news and i understand the superintendent again will walk us through this later tonight so i don’t want to steal too much of this thunder um but with just over a month left in fy 20 the school is tracking over 200 000 surplus for the year

25:34 um while some of the surplus is undoubtedly due to the savings as a result of this horrible pandemic um it is clear we would have been a significant surplus even without the pandemic we were going to save money either way admittedly i have been hoping to save these words for about a year what a difference a year makes david sarah golden megan you fought a hell of a battle last year to balance the budget sarah fox well not on the committee then you fought a hell of about a battle behind the scenes i’m grateful to you all you all stood by emily blair myself fincom committee the town especially jason silva and the selectmen and stared adversity in the face

26:19 and pushed for a responsible budget that you you push for a responsible budget to give kids some of what the wants and all of the needs at a time and that wasn’t necessarily getting good press um but it was the right thing to do despite being pressured by others that it wasn’t here we are a year later announcing that the budget was more than enough when other school committee members and school leaders pushed for a 1.2 million dollar override you three along with fincom and the selectmen and town leaders knew it wasn’t an appropriate ask at that time there was extreme fiscal mismanagement that needed to be addressed before we hit the taxpayers pockets we needed to first clean up the mess and see if there was a real possibility we had enough money

27:05 and didn’t need to take from taxpayers and here we are a year later we had more than enough money and never took additional funds from taxpayers not only that but for the first time in many years on fincom and in anyone’s memory that i know of the schools are able to contribute their surplus to the long-term financial stability of the town of course i’d be a fool i’d be remiss if i didn’t mention bill and michelle uh and your team uh thank you for everything you you all have dealt with so much stress this year uh the list is endless and somehow you not only got us through it but you kept us on budget not only that but we’re back on track indeed what a difference here makes i’m almost done sarah promise last year was brutal for some of us

27:50 for myself personally for our town administrator and especially for three school committee members that dug their heels in and fought for the responsible and best approach for the kids the teachers and the school system’s future sarah i’m so proud of your leadership megan and david you’ve done a terrific job sarah fox again and thank you for all you did behind the scenes last year it pains me to say it but bill belichick doesn’t rest on one title and neither should you pressure’s on for another great run in fy 21 thank you again for your hard work dedication and balanced and fiscally responsible fy20 good health and be well thank you for the time thanks ben thank you um i right now i don’t have anybody else uh signed up for public comment i’ll

28:37 just kind of make one more little plea um feel free to unmute yourself if you want to make a public comment at this point and then you can put your name and address in later all right i think we can move on then and that brings us to the minutes there were two sets of minutes um on the agenda for um approval tonight the minutes from february 12th and the minutes from february 26th does anybody have any comments on them or any additions or subtractions

29:19 all right then i will ask for emotion the only thing is um uh sarah yeah go ahead jen sorry sarah yep go ahead oh i just wanted to admit it’s not a big deal just to say it’s just a table on the minutes for um you know february 26th um under commendations just greg mr name is spelled incorrect we just wanna it’s section one item two i don’t know if lisa is on the call or not i think she is i’ll just say i’ll just send it an email perfect thanks jen

29:56 all right um can i get a motion to approve the minutes from february 12th and february 26th of 2020 so moved megan moved oh second oh second gen second thank you any other comments okay i’ll do a roll call uh sarah gold yes sarah fox

30:35 sure we can’t hear you yes okay thank you sarah um jen schaffner yeah yeah megan taylor yes and david harris yes yes did you hear me yes thank you i’ve got i heard everybody say yes so the motion will carry five to zero all right that brings us next to the superintendent’s report bill i will turn it over to you and i’m going to allow you to share your screen hopefully

31:24 oh great i think you were able to do it though but unmute yourself

31:53 yes you are now i’m muted and you you were sharing your screen a moment ago so it you can share it you may you may regret i’m muting me

32:07 thank you sarah good evening everyone uh first item uh so next on the agenda under superintendent’s report is a school closure update there are three items related to that i’m going to do a very very brief update on the remote learning plan then dan bauer will uh make a uh we’ll speak to uh some uh uh draft planning uh going on for graduation to fill you in on on where we’re at with that where he is at he and his team and then uh some information relative to a re-entry plan uh that’s when we have a document they’ll share with you so in terms of the uh remote learning plan uh you received a memo from me uh yesterday sometime

32:53 yesterday sometime yesterday sometime and uh basically uh we did receive updated guidance from desi uh we received that about two weeks ago uh late on a friday night uh the guidance uh has been posted on the website along with the commissioner’s memo uh and uh uh and that has also been uh was just recently uh uploaded into your dropbox school committee members so uh when you have a chance uh some of you i know have looked at it already uh there are just a couple of things i wanted to highlight uh the commissioner uh reinforced in his updated guidance uh

33:41 the three basic principles that all school districts should be following uh during period of school closure and implementation of remote learning plans uh that has to do with the safety and well-being of students families and staff uh you know this has been and must continue to be our top priority as the educational community we have focu we are focused not only on physical health safety and nutrition but also on social emotional and mental health needs which could intensify during this time and our district has been paying close attention to that um the second principle uh indicates that this crisis disproportionately affects our most vulnerable students in terms of

34:27 their physical and mental health and also academically equity needs to be a top consideration in planning efforts especially as uh we’ve we’ve made and adjusted our plans uh in managing this extended closure so we’re we’re working hard on that and then maintaining connections between school staff students and families is paramount particularly for the most vulnerable members of our school communities and uh in my opinion we have been uh you know you don’t see it online every day but offline there’s a lot of work happening around that particular principle and we continue to

35:14 work on ways to increase uh our regular uh communication live communications and connections with uh all of our students uh there were two major updates provided in the in the recent guidance and uh both of these uh are will be a focus point for us as we move forward through the end of the year uh the first from desi uh that guidance was to further define the recommended elements of a quality remote learning program including a focus on teaching the content standards most critical for student success in the next grade level and then the second was encouraging districts to move all students towards successful engagement

36:01 in remote learning so i would tell you that the task force has met a number of times both to review the updated guidance and to continue to review on a regular basis the feedback that we receive uh adjustments have been made as necessary and where appropriate uh you know we continuously do that and we will be doing that right up through uh the last few weeks of school uh i think since the beginning relative to the uh updated focus area of of ensuring that uh all of our students are engaged uh our staff have since the very beginning

36:47 been making regular efforts to monitor engagement and i can tell you that in cases where engagement has been either sporadic what was not happening uh a plan of action uh was developed and uh and uh followed through on and uh we’re making that happen so uh you know this is a a learning process for all of us both families at home and those of us uh in in the educational community and uh you know i wanted to give a shout out to our staff for their continuous improvement in this

37:33 regard and especially i wanted to make a a comment uh given that this is teacher appreciation week um thank you for those who uh shared your appreciation at the outset of the meeting uh but i’d like to take this opportunity i think it’s a perfect time to express uh my appreciation to all of our staff to all of our teachers uh i think you may have heard me say this a number of times in the past but something i shared fairly fairly early on in in my tenure and uh that was that i quickly became aware that despite uh some of the chaos and turmoil that existed

38:19 uh in the central office area for a good part of the second half of the year you know none of that my observation has been that none of that chaos and turmoil crept down into the building level and our administrators and staff uh did not let that impact the fine work that they uh do each and every day so uh thank you for that and uh to all of our teachers and staff uh thank you for the fine work you’ve done this year and uh most especially have continued to do during this very difficult period of time so thank you very much are there any comments or questions related to the remote learning plan before we go on to graduation

39:04 jen did you have your hand up you’re okay all right uh no i think you can go ahead bill okay great thank you uh ian how are you are you there there he is

39:33 yes you can we’re all set okay good good yes all right um i’ll i’ll just give an update where we’re at right now and um i appreciate the time and obviously you know it i can’t underscore the disappointment that our seniors have and certainly our families too and and our staff in terms of what’s happening and nobody ever anticipated at the end of a high school career for anybody and um and i appreciate how our students have persevered and i think um they’ve done a great job in spite of the situation so you know one of the things that we want to make sure that we do is honor our seniors as as best as we can in light of the situation and make sure

40:20 that we honor in a way that they will be proud their families will be proud and the community will be proud and one thing that i know coming in as a new principal four years ago as i snuck in the commencement and um and i know how important it is um and how impressed i’ve been with it and we’ve tried some tweaks and upgrades as we’ve moved along so we take this work very very seriously um and we’ve been working really hard and we still know that you know obviously i think the most frustrating thing to be honest with you is you know things are evolving things are changing and the uncertainty and um so we want to make sure that we do the best that we can um moving forward but also keep an eye out to certainly being able to pivot and be flexible uh as

41:06 things may change as we know um so i will say that we’ve met with stakeholders we’ve met with our senior class officers a number of times our senior class advisor um we’ve also communicated with the board of health and public safety obviously bill and and our our staff within our building that works on graduation and that includes uh our assistance um my administrative assistant and um many others that help out so we’re trying to figure out what is the best scenario that we could provide again the best uh celebration of our seniors we owe it to them i owe it to them and we’re committed to that piece so as we kind of peeled through and had discussions with the class officers were like what is the best scenario what can we do

41:52 we do we do um and one of the things that is nerve-wracking is the fact of trying to kick things down the road to a point where with the uncertainty that i would not want to get into a situation where you move things into the latter part of the summer and then things still haven’t changed and our students then start to move on to college into other aspects of their life so we’re like can we somehow work on something that gives us the best of both worlds can we create a celebration currently and then also with an eye to celebrate at a later time so we still have a lot of work to do this is not a final plan by any means and i’m still working on communication with the senior parents too um in the class of 2020 so as we looked at this we were trying to

42:38 figure out what guidelines can we follow to to move through um and certainly based on where we’re at in social distancing we kind of looked at like what’s the the most challenging option that we could put together the best option we could put together um so the students felt very strongly about being able to you know caps and gowns uh being able to have something that they could maybe even cross the stage in some capacity and understanding that we’re not in a time where everything can be as as it was so i think the big piece is they looked we’ve been looking at if if we need to go with the virtual option we’ve been researching that one because that’s the most challenging the most difficult option there is because there’s a lot of interface that would have to take place

43:25 to make that happen and also making sure that we have a quality professional um type of virtual situation that would allow for everybody to be proud of so josten’s is our yearbook they do our yearbooks and they also have a professional platform that they’re offering to schools we’ve been researching that um and also knowing that we would it would require a lot of work and a lot of planning to pull this off because you would not only have to have a production where you have speeches you have the music you have if you can’t have an ability to have kids cross the stage uh and integrate that into a video you would need some time to make sure you can edit that professionally with help of our av people as well and then be able to stream that out live during that time so everybody could

44:12 watch it not only our seniors and their families but other community members as well as uh relatives who certainly can’t travel during this time so looking through that it’s it’s pretty complex um and we’ve been studying like in in the senior officers have given us the feedback in this one so we’ve been able to look at elements of the programming we’ve used before in terms of the speeches in terms of the the music so we’ve been able to sort that through uh put together a graduation program that we would still have but also the piece is like how do you organize and set up something that would allow everyone to pick up their caps and gowns to pick up their we call the senior swag um in terms of being able to pick up other items and then even if it’s a

44:58 coordinated with a drop off too and but also balance public safety balance most importantly the board of health recommendations um for for guidelines with social distancing and social gatherings so you may know monday we had the senior sign drop-off right which was went very well a huge collaborative effort that was outstanding and that was uh that allowed us to see how that might look to check in people utilize the perimeter of the building to set up if we move with the virtual piece that you could actually pick up your gowns you can pick up your stuff and do it in a systematic way where it would be spaced out over time and that would allow the ability to you know pick up the gear but then also the big piece is being able to see if we

45:44 can work on an option where we can get everybody to cross the stage be able to video that weave it into a footage somehow be able to allow the parents to see the family members see that happen on the other side and move off in a safe manner so and we’ve been putting together uh our plan we’ve we’ve shared it with the board of health we’ve shared it with public safety and and with bill um to see you know if if that all would be viable because that certainly would have to be you know vetted through to make sure it meets all the the guidelines and social distancing and gathering and and all that peace too with safety in mind so in fact we’re even ordering uh totes for the students so we could put their gowns we could put everything into a tote to keep it safe and also

46:29 ordering masks for the students as well with the nice logo on it for the social distancing component is well um so you know it would be a big big piece to to do but we feel confident that you know pushing this through if this is the situation that we’re in um we we’ve worked on the organization because that’s going to take some time but again um the piece that would be challenging is to make sure you have enough time to bring students through to do all this so the protocol that we would put together would be you know obviously approved by the board of health and public safety and certainly um is one that i feel confident we could we could do but it’s still that piece has to be

47:15 worked through um so we we’ve worked on that piece and that’s that’s where we’re at i know we have more work to do this is the committee this week we’re going to speak and meet again with our class officers early in the week and certainly you know we have other ideas of of planning for um other ideas for our seniors too we had last year if you remember we created the scholarship ceremony which we moved the scholar actually two years ago we moved the scholarships outside of the graduation ceremony we still want to recreate that but we know that that piece will work on a virtual piece where we can have the scholarships discussed and then be able to show the the award winners and be able to broadcast that too we’ve talked about being able to put together parades one would be with the

48:00 students and then one with teachers if the teachers want to do something well uh but again that that’ll work through in the public safety piece that will have to be vetted to see um how we can do that and when and i’m sure you know once once you move past the 18th we’ll see where we go with any guideline changes and things like that um and then obviously the the warwick theater offered up the marquee which was awesome and our senior officers are gonna work on being able to put messages on there which i find outstanding um and then we worked on a way for the yearbook piece to uh be able to distribute to the students there’s a digital signing option but i think the big piece of this is if we move the virtual route is to have a celebration at a later time which the kids want they want an opportunity to say

48:46 goodbye to their friends and be able to gather together but that has to be done at a time when it’s safe to do so within guidelines so the class would there they would put together a celebration we would support that 100 and whether that means using the field house whether that involves music and food and being able to honor them they sign the yearbooks physically um and do different things like that we’re open to any other suggestions and and they’re going to work on on that piece too because we feel very strongly about giving that opportunity to be together i think the one thing they missed the most is that saying goodbye to each other and saying goodbye to teachers because that that is the piece you know as you get into the closure moving on is very important so that’s where we’re at we have a lot more work to do but i just wanted to give you an update where we are at this point

49:39 thank you dan uh so just as a quick summary uh right now uh you and your your uh uh your your uh group are working with uh um the public health department with andrew pediatrics director with public safety uh the hope at this point is that we will hold graduation on the original date june 5th 6 o’clock friday night uh if if we’re able to pull this off it will be a virtual option where it will be broadcast theoretically at that time and uh and then to underscore your commentary

50:24 about uh and continuing to work with uh seniors uh on the possibility of doing something uh some kind of celebration we can all get together uh at some point down the road when uh it is safe to do so and uh so that’s where we’re standing right where we stand right now and um i think it’s fair to say is it fair for me to say dan that we will certainly provide another update to the school committee on uh may 21st yeah because i still have to work on things and as you said you know um if things pivot and they change we have to be able to be flexible to make happen the best that we can so i’m still working on getting that through with further communication families too

51:10 families too families too thanks and and school committee members did receive uh quite a comprehensive document from mr bauer uh explaining everything that he just verbally went through any questions for dan on that yeah um i do hit jen’s hand his phrase but i just want to say to dan thank you this all sounds so great you know um i’m not surprised that you figured out how to make this really special and you know just keep up the good work it’s really exciting to hear how you guys are working together to pull this off

51:50 you’ve got your hand up um yeah can you hear me yeah yeah can am i you you do you’re good okay um i actually i think i think bill answered my question but i just so this is basically the plan is assuming you can work out the details it’s not i just wasn’t clear on the document whether it’s something you’re considering or it looks like this is actually what the plan is assuming you can you know kind of pull all the stuff together with with around safety issues is that correct yeah yes okay great awesome can i just add something dan dan and i have talked about this a lot and i have to tell you having been a high school principal for 10 years i i really feel for the seniors i

52:37 feel for the staff i always felt graduation was one of the two best days of the school year of it it’s it’s a very meaningful exercise and i’m very impressed with the planning that’s going on here uh if it can be pulled off i i really think it’s it’s a a great alternative however you know amidst all this planning let’s say everything goes well and it’s it’s uh and we talked about this and it’s may 25th and you know we’re full speed ahead and for some reason i don’t think any of us believe this is

53:24 going to happen but if on may 25th we learned that you know on june 15th we can have as large a gathering as we can and we can bring people together our plan will be to stop and likely we would uh delay you know graduation and we do it the way that we would have traditionally i don’t think any of us think that’s gonna happen but uh when dean talked about being flexible that’s exactly what uh what has been discussed so yes you know if by some miracle we can pivot we’re going to do that because that’s what our seniors and their families deserve

54:16 great that’s great to hear thank you both did anybody else have a question all right looks clear go ahead i have a question but i i just want to say uh you know thanks to dan and bill and everybody else i’m sure you are working all the angles and that’s what i’m thinking you know if june 5th comes and maybe there’s a window of opportunity a couple of weeks out and maybe it is just a modified opportunity but as dan said even if that opportunity is something that allows uh since last year was the first time um graduation was held outdoors it’s an opportunity for a lot of social distancing and maybe it would present an opportunity

55:03 for that crossing of the stage and social distancing but maybe you can’t have all the parents and all the families and friends there but i’m sure you’re working through all those options and it’s just great to hear because um after last year and my son being a senior and being out you know you know in the stadium and and experiencing that day i certainly have a great appreciation for it and uh i know i know you do dan as a principal and as bill said having been a principal previously so so thanks for trying to make it happen fingers crossed

55:45 thanks i really like the idea wow i really like the idea of how um you you set out the way to do it virtually but you also said even if we do this virtually we’ll still come back whether it’s in three months or six months or eight months and acknowledge them and let them have that closure in person and i think that’s such a great piece to it um and just thank you to all the students and to you and the staff um but the students who are just i i am so impressed with their strengths to just keep carrying on through all this megan megan yeah not to you know take up too much time but i do want to echo what everyone else has said

56:31 this is a less than ideal situation especially for teachers and students and their families um and dan i want to thank you but also you know the students and the teachers i think it really shows the ex you know the exceptional people we have in our staff and our students and their resiliency to work through all the complex elements of this because you’re right there are so many moving parts and so many uncertainties and you know i just appreciate how everyone is coming together and it just you know kind of reinvigorates my love for this community and for these schools so i just thank everybody for all the work they’re doing and i know that we’ll find a way to give our seniors the proper celebration that they deserve for their compliment accomplishments so thank you

57:18 all right all right i think that’s it on that dan do you have anything else that you wanted to say or build thank you very much sorry i did one i just want to echo what bill said about dan howells he is not only an awesome representative to the school committee but he is a talented young man in our school and he’s just an upstanding citizen and i take great pride when i see his reports um he couldn’t he doesn’t ask me for any information he does the reports he’s loyal and and i’m so proud of him and i’m glad that you recognized his work um and thank you for your support too

58:05 thanks dan thanks dan absolutely thanks dan

58:12 thanks dan and thanks for all your work really it is very much appreciated up so next is re-entry plan before i get to that uh every now and then you may see my video stop on the screen i just want to assure you i am still listening uh but uh i may be taking a bite of a pop talk every now and then that’s my demon tonight very nutritious bill yeah we’ll allow for it though dan did you give those pop tags to bill okay okay uh so i’m going to uh share a screen

59:02 okay okay so a reentry plan so i apologize for committee members this is the first time you’re seeing this i want to just make a comment before we go through this uh you know me i’m a dinosaur i’ve been around a long time i’ve been in this job for a long time for many years i i have to tell you this particular task is proving to be one of the most difficult tasks i’ve taken on it is uh is just so many unknowns out there right now uh so so i apologize i’m struggling a little bit through this but uh you know i i i’m going to in the end i’ve decided

59:48 that the best way to approach this is we’re going to put a group together a group that’s representative of these main components of what i have in this it says rough graph it really should say very rough graph but uh but anyway my my sense is we’ll be working on this right through may and into june trying to get you know some kind of semblance of a draft plan that uh is a doable and b is uh makes the most sense for where we are you know at a particular point in time uh i would say if i get out my crystal ball that

1:00:33 that this plan will will be an evolving plan right as we go through the summer because there’s no doubt in my mind that things are going to be changing uh as we go through the next uh three to four months so here’s here’s my take on a very rough draft what i’ve tried to do is put this in an outline uh i you know again this is just a concept right now and still to happen is to fill in all of the details and i am sure that there are many things that

1:01:22 that uh are missing from this plan and uh from this outline and uh you know it’ll it’ll be evolving but i try to identify some major components as i said and then provide you know some examples of the various pieces that are related to that as i went through this and as i i’ve been looking at this uh i’m sure that pieces that are under each of the general uh uh topics uh the abc groups the the uh small eye small double eyes

1:02:07 some of those pieces will appear in other sections of this outline as well so again just you know uh a very very beginning so you know the development of a reentry plan will in all cases really be defined and and be related to uh federal state and local guidance from public health officials public safety officials etc uh you know we’ve heard this up my internet connection is there we go uh so so again uh you know whether that guidance is

1:02:53 related to social distancing you know group size will covid19 testing be required will it even be available you know what kind of access if that’s the case uh and then other uh quote spread avoidance guidance that may be new or you know the same old same old and you see some of that further down in this in this outline uh budget implications i don’t know if that should be at the top of the list number one or or not but uh you know very simply right now uh that represents the cost of the various components of a re-entry plan

1:03:40 that’s put together and you know looking at this uh uh and as you review it in further detail as we go you know further uh into may you know many of the pieces of the major components you know have budget implications so as we go through this you’ll you know that’ll that’ll become very apparent uh so health and safety is a major component i think of a re-entry plan uh you know does that mean increased health monitoring what does that look like will we be required by guidance or as a district you know will we want to have temperature checks when

1:04:27 students and staffs enter the building more visitors will we even allow visitors in the building uh ppe what will be uh what will be the uh you know the use of of a personal uh protective equipment will it just be certain staff you know the nurse nursing staff will it you know will it be in some degree for everyone in terms of masks uh is there an implication for nurse staffing if if we’re going to do increased health monitoring if we’re going to put in place certain measures around health and safety that uh that might involve uh the expertise of nurses you know what does that mean

1:05:13 for nurse staffing so we would need to plan for that that certainly would be a budget implication as would ppe be uh you know around health and safety increased regular building cleaning you know intensive cleaning uh uh you know cleaning of high-touch areas at multiple times of the day what does that mean for you know custodial and maintenance staffing uh you know hand washing what about attendance regulations uh you know what we do uh around uh uh students who may have been affected themselves or a family member you know how does how does uh

1:05:59 you know how does that come into play and there’s operational logistics uh you know will the guidance limit class size you know is it will it be safe to have 20 to 22 students in the classroom can we logistically you know uh distant students social distancing within the classroom um if not does that mean that we we have to plan on when we return to school some kind of split sessions you know half the kids go in the morning half the kids in the afternoon what does that mean for uh if if you know we’re reopening you know all of the parts of the state uh

1:06:44 uh uh parents who who work so uh what does that mean if we have to do split sessions that you know is that feasible um you know rival dismissal protocols do we do we need to uh identify certain certain uh entry points that are only entry points certain points in the build net you know that’s where you leave the building from uh do we have to develop one-way traffic flow inside the building uh like we’re seeing in uh grocery stores for example today uh again increased building cleanliness food service so

1:07:31 under food service a few more other kind of detailed pieces what does that mean for meal prep are there uh will there be guidance around meal prep is do we have to make some adjustments uh for uh food service workers to stay six feet apart what does that look like um where do students eat if if when we open school in september we’re limited to you know uh the number of students who can congregate at one time you know that means probably that might mean not large groups can’t go into the cafeteria so the students have to eat in their classrooms you know what will that look like um

1:08:16 how does this work id split sessions

1:08:24 sorry i don’t know what that means uh how does this work oh so how does i know what that means so for food service for providing our lunches and breakfast you know how does that work if we have to do some kind of a split session uh program uh and then transportation under logistics you know will there be limits on ridership how many students can be bus uh cleaning of the interior buses intensive cleaning revenue cleaning what about bus stop protocols around social distancing etc and then we get into you know those are these are important but you know the the main purpose of our existence the academic piece uh you know

1:09:09 you know you know do we need to do assessment testing when students return is it done somehow some other way so there can be summer planning uh you know assessment testing to determine where students are at in terms of knowledge gaps or in terms of achievement gaps you know and how do we determine you know what kind of assessment test we want to do is it you know do we purchase uh some kind of assessment do we do we make our own uh and then of course uh i think there’ll be certainly some of our students who will have the need for either remedial or supplemental programming when does that occur

1:09:55 occur occur you know are we going to be able to uh have summer school you know will the guidance once we start reopening you know will will that be allowed how do we do that uh we’re already starting to think of that and uh i can answer some questions if you have on that but you know once we return to school on the entry is will they be after school programming will be around remedial and supplemental will it will will we do some work on saturdays international education uh you know the the school closures could mean a possible increase in iep services impacts along with the other things already meant

1:10:41 uh could there be a possible increase in placements uh services so those are all things to be considered in including in uh addressing in a re-entry plan and then there are social emotional and mental health considerations uh will our students need an increased level of student support does that mean additional counselors mental health professionals certainly uh you know building uh building a robust uh referral network uh that’s necessary you know uh where are our kids gonna be terms of anxiety you know uh coming to school and then staff training

1:11:26 just around social emotional mental health considerations but a lot of other considerations and there’s the whole extracurricular and athletics piece so uh if this seems overwhelming uh to me but uh but you know we’ll get we’ll find a way to get through this and uh so i wanted to offer it as as really the kind of beginning of the exercise and you know i’ve been doing uh i have been doing research and uh uh on this there isn’t a whole lot out there but one good resource i did find is uh some information from the uh

1:12:13 the association of american uh pediatric doctors that’s not the name of the association uh i just had it in front of me but that that was a very good resource that i looked at and i’ll send that out to school committee members uh i think it would be worthwhile to take a look at that you know we’ll continue to look at that so my next step is uh to think through and identify uh some key uh individuals uh staff members and perhaps uh perhaps some people outside that are not employees or staff members that can help us in these key areas and uh we’ll be looking to uh put something like that together over

1:13:00 the course of the next 10 days uh i think that as times by uh the month of may there will be more guidance provided there will be more opportunities to what other districts are doing and uh and there will be agencies that will will i’m sure be coming out with you know a lot of uh of information relative to these components and uh i would say you know i think the massachusetts nurses association has already started doing some work on that so we’ll tap into you know resources like that so i’ve talked enough sorry uh happy to engage in discussion

1:13:47 discussion discussion uh you know feel free to we can do it in this format we can do it with uh feedback getting back what you’ve had really i’ll send this out tonight really look at this but again uh this is really a very rough draft and a first stab at it thanks bill um yeah well that’s um you know i think we all knew that this was going to be a lot um but it’s certainly laid out in front uh is overwhelming um and i mentioned to you the idea of um looping that i had been kind of stumbling across did you have any chance to look into that one yet

1:14:41 you know i i haven’t yet there was a leadership tv coming up on tuesday so that’s going to be on the agenda stuff about that there are some positives to that i think there are some challenges to that as well yeah i’m sure no so we we have to look at demanding uh you know how that how that could be implemented uh so we’ll we’ll talk more and get the motion on that and i’m sure there’ll be other suggestions as well that’ll come up yeah absolutely um yeah i think you know i think the the situation with our buildings right now present sort of another layer of

1:15:27 complexity with all of this i think sarah fox had her hand up first so sarah go ahead

1:15:38 thank you bill so much i know you keep referred to this as a rough draft but this is actually a really comprehensive list and i’m i’m really um thankful and impressed for how detailed of a list you you produced of this various concerns the only one that i can think of that’s not on this is that there will be families that even when we do re-enter the building that will not be able to re-enter when everybody else does um who have immune issues in their families and how will we approach that will we group you know those children under one teacher per grade level and that teacher continues remote teaching or how will we address that because i’m sure there’s a number of families in our community that will be facing that um

1:16:24 um um but i this is a very comprehensive list uh and i liked how you said you wanted to loop in possibly members of the community we’re very rich in volunteers in this community and also rich in a knowledge base i know we have public health professionals epidemiologists that live in town and i and i’m happy to say we live in a town people are quite often happy to chip in so um i think that we we could add those people as resources but thank you so much for your comprehensive lists bill even if it did give me a panic attack

1:17:21 jen i don’t know if i’m frozen or jen go ahead one more thought i had we’re waiting sorry can you hear me figure out how technology ethology was the other piece that wasn’t on here i think eric can you hear me now oh yes thank you yes uh yes

1:18:01 can you now yep yes or no yes sarah can you hear me i can i can’t see you but i can hear you can you hear me yes or no can you you can hear me okay sorry i’ve had internet

1:18:22 i think that um i think we’ve got bill’s screen still up there but i don’t know yeah bill do you want to stop sharing your time there we go so i’ve had internet going in and out all day today i apologize um i was on a conference call today with

1:18:51 all right yeah can you now i i think so i don’t know if you guys can hear me well and if you can’t hear me text um i was on um it was a conference call today with a group called uh discovery education which is a um digital learning um organization and they had uh two school superintendents on um one from dallas and one from miami-dade county and they had a lot of things to say about what’s going on with covet and remote learning but they were talking about a lot of these issues and it was clear to me in a

1:19:37 couple of these larger districts in some of the largest districts in the country they’ve already got a plan talking about um their summer session um starting their summer two summer sessions beginning in the at the end of may running until the new school year starts in august um and creating hybrid plans for the start of the fall where some students will be coming to school in the buildings assuming they’re open some students won’t be coming at all and some students will be doing a combination of the two so it seems like there’s a lot of collaboration going on out there in this world so i’m just curious bill if there’s any um conversation going on among superintendents in like scientifics like marblehead either on the north shore or

1:20:25 throughout the state of massachusetts as you begin to try to put these plans together because i think there’s a lot of good ideas out there and we don’t have to we probably don’t have bill i don’t know if you heard all that or not

1:20:55 uh i heard i heard the uh part about uh what our other uh districts are doing uh there hasn’t been a whole lot of discussion i’m sure that’s going to ramp up uh and you know my hope is that there will be resources and you know we all won’t have to uh be in a position where we’re creating in our own individual plans uh so that’s something that i am paying attention to there’s just not been a lot of it in terms of you know what’s happening in dallas and miami-dade you know an observation i’ll make is that they’re two of them

1:21:41 you know they’re probably in the top 25 largest districts in in the country and they certainly have resources and capacity to put people on this and and get it done you know uh in short order uh we do not so to your point about collaboration you know that’s really important uh but that’s something that uh you know we are looking at and hopefully uh either the uh superintendent’s association or desi you know or or organizations working together will be helping school districts as we get further into the month uh putting this these kind of plans together but

1:22:27 you know it’s good that we’re thinking about it now and moving forward you know in the best way that we can

1:22:40 sarah you’ve got your hand back up [Music] yes um two two other thoughts i had on this um i know i sound crazy but i actually stay up at night thinking about how can my kids go back to school safely because we our family has a separate an additional set of challenges um and when we when we talk about you know the possibility of increasing our nursing staff thinking out of the box a little bit you know could we look at certified nursing assistants who certainly can take temperatures and things like that but come at a much more finance a deeper financial savings than you know hiring more rns um things like that um and then

1:23:26 the other thing was it’s you know when we start to look at placements for kids in the fall if we did something where families who have multiple siblings if they line up having to line up in grade levels then we’re lessening people’s contact with you know say a family here two families have a third fourth and kindergarten student if we place all the students in the sand we’re limiting the external contacts coming into that class to less like tentacles if you will of the outreach of cross contamination

1:24:22 anybody else megan did you want to say something yeah um yeah um bill thanks for putting this together there’s obviously a number of items to think through quite a lot of you know still uncertainty so i appreciate you know this is a starting point um you obviously have a lot on your plate is this something that you plan to be leading or would you um someone else to kind of lead this task force

1:25:04 i haven’t gotten through that far yet megan to be honest with you uh i’m not sure that uh okay you know anyone else everyone else is as you know as busy as we’re all very busy so we’ll we’ll figure that out all right yep

1:25:38 okay all right that’s good and then um in terms of you know our superintendent elect i know he’s not on virginia but just thinking about you know how to kind of integrate into this plan because you know the plane as you mentioned will be evolving over the summer too so i’m just curious on your thoughts about that

1:26:10 that’s a good point and uh i think that you know he’ll he will need to be involved in that and uh definitely have a discussion about that because i think he should have some input into that clue so okay all right all right so i that’s a very good point and uh and then sorry go ahead i’ll make sure that he’s uh is involved nope okay thank you yeah and then you mentioned um the little piece and that you you know thinking this through a little bit more so if i’m premature on this let me know when you talk about summer school is

1:26:56 that something that you’re kind of anticipating would be for kind of all students something try to be addressing students or more for kids where we have to you know have some targeted opportunities there yep so yep so that’s a good question honestly uh i was i was talking we’re at now is uh planning our uh our regular extended year program for our our uh students who uh require that uh special education students in particular uh and

1:27:44 you know before school closure we had uh we had post basketball positions which we do annually uh and uh so what’s happening now is we are finalizing uh you know the the students who would typically participate with finalizing the staff staff need to be notified of their appointment and uh so we need to we will be appointing them on a you know on an uh a temporary basis in case uh you know we can’t we can’t do a a on-site you know program and you know i i’m not optimistic that we

1:28:30 can do that so you know eric is working with his staff on you know how we would do that uh you know with that limitation and and we would need to adjust uh you know the responsibilities clearly of staff that we’re hiring we may not need as many staff but we’re we’re going through that process so we at least have uh everything that we need in place should should somehow you know we’re able to get the kids into the building uh it may be a delay in the start of that program you know if that’s the case but uh so we’re still working on the details there so in terms of students who are mentioned

1:29:16 you know on the re-entry plan students who need you know remedial or supplemental you know uh assistance i’m not sure to be perfectly honest that logistically that’s something that we could we could pull together for summer uh to be uh you know that would require uh some sort of testing so uh again you know we’ll know better as we move you know later into the month and into early june but uh my sense is that kind of additional support for students uh will would likely be you know at the beginning of the school year and and could perhaps continue

1:30:03 throughout the entire school year you know depending on how that’s set up there’s [Music] still an awful lot of unknowns out there as we all know all right thank you yep absolutely thank you

1:30:24 bill do you think that you’ll have budget rough figures for us that are allocated towards these items before we vote on our budget soon the beginning of june so uh you know

1:30:43 perhaps some rough numbers maybe you know once this gets once we we get further clarification and it becomes more uh user-friendly for lack of a better term to use uh that would be the goal certainly you know or be a set aside you know we may come up with the ballpark figure you know that addresses you know either various needs or you know maybe some uh unknown needs we do know that there is federal money coming we should receive about a hundred thousand dollars

1:31:31 uh and those funds uh can be used for those purposes and uh will have 27 months to use that funding so that’s a a fairly significant amount of money uh you know but if we stock you know if we stop having that staff then you know then

1:32:03 then the number you know the dollar you know increases increases significantly so more to come on now thanks bill thanks bill um i don’t have anybody else’s hand raised so um if you want to move forward i think we’re ready for that thank you thank you great thank you sarah uh just a note so i’m gonna give give a brief assistant superintendent search update uh the the third northeast consortium that we need to table that there was the information just wasn’t available and we may not need to this was

1:32:49 this was going to uh northeast consortium is adding another member to the consortium and uh and it’s a

1:33:00 kentucky regional kentucky regional and the the bylaws state that uh ten of the members have to vote to accept uh the new member uh because that that will change that portion of the bylaw that identifies the members of the consortium so i was unable to get the information i needed from fran rosenberg uh i was i’m gonna be able to find it frankly so um so if the committee still needs to vote on that uh we’ll do that on may 21st uh but but uh i think you should vote anyway even if they already have the requisite number

1:33:45 requisite number requisite number uh of school committees that they need to vote i i just think it’s uh as a member of that organization uh i think it’s important for school to be attacked on that so i don’t come back on may 21st okay thanks bill okay so the assistant superintendent search update uh now i’m pleased to report that uh the search advisory committee has met uh now four times uh we have two organizational meetings we’ve conducted two sessions of interviews um there is another interview session happening tomorrow uh it’s a it’s a tremendous uh committee

1:34:32 uh everybody has been hard at work and uh very focused on finding the best candidate to be our next assistant superintendent uh and uh we will be meeting um early next week to uh discuss all of the candidate interviews and the committee will forward a recommendation to myself and dr bucky a pool of candidates to move to the next step in the process so uh you know we had a a strong we received a total of 43 applications and uh had a strong pool to interview uh and uh so we’re

1:35:19 moving full speed ahead and uh i my hope i still am fairly confident that we’ll be able to bring you know a recommended candidate to the committee uh for your approval at the june 4th meeting so at least you know at this point that’s i’m hopeful for that so i want to thank the members of the search advisory committee they’re doing a great job and hopefully we’ll have even more uh information for you on the 21st and uh more information i’m hoping that we can actually do uh are able to do a you know a a perhaps a community forum with the finalist candidates

1:36:04 uh do that virtually and uh give the school committee an opportunity to interact uh with finalist candidates before you uh before you vote on a recommendation so that’s moving forward and uh it’s been pretty exciting

1:36:21 fantastic thanks bill and thanks to everyone on that committee i know um so that’s a lot of work so we’re excited for that um sarah i just said one question go ahead so bill have you heard these are uncharted times and uncharted waters and the hiring and it’s certainly unprecedented i guess where people are getting hired without um interviews that take place in person um

1:37:00 with social distancing have you heard is there is there anything going on where maybe interviews take place where there’s an appropriate social distancing or for the final acceptance or or something like that where where people could be together with less than 10 people in a room yeah i’ve heard of a couple of recent uh superintendent uh finalist interviews with school committees where uh social distance it was just the school committee members uh it was being recorded in both instances and uh

1:37:46 in the candidate uh and they followed social distancing protocols uh i heard of a story uh yesterday with again it was a superintendent search and uh the finalists candidate they were they they did the they did all of their work virtually and then when they were negotiating a contract the school committee was on one side of a cafeteria the uh finalists the and they were zooming back and forth with attorneys and then they were doing hand signals across the way i don’t know but uh right you know i think some of that you know depends on

1:38:34 what’s happening at the local level and if we were to do that that’s something that we wanted to do that that’s something we would be we would work with uh andrew petty in the board of health you know on on making sure that that’s that was acceptable but uh again you know we’ll we’ll see where this goes uh right the virtual interviews have actually it’s been uh it’s actually gone well and matt fox uh you know completed conducted his assistant principal search doing that he did a parent for him he did a teacher forum virtually i was able to meet the candidate virtually uh and it worked well

1:39:20 and so we’ve uh uh you know our candidate accepted our offer a very highly qualified candidate uh you know we haven’t finalized things so uh more information will come to you hopefully at the next meeting but uh that worked very well you know and and one of the real important process as we’ve talked about before as you know is the vetting process and of course that can all be done uh you know it’s all done with personal calls uh research and all of that so right i think we can be successful without having to do that okay i don’t know what that means for the road but

1:40:07 you know we’ll see yeah can i just add something there um first of all bill that’s great news about the assistant principal at vets so i’m really excited to hear about that um but david i have to say like i was a little apprehensive about doing these interviews virtually but i think they’ve gone really smoothly and i think the candidates you know have been able to converse and we get a good feel for their personality as well um so i think it’s been a good process so far and i’ve been um you know happily surprised at how smooth it’s gone

1:40:44 well i i appreciate that feedback and that and that’s great to hear and um yeah i’m sure with all the interviews and everybody that’s on the screening committee it’s um been a different process for sure but we’ll just have to see how it goes forward and if it changes maybe they’ll be um maybe we can meet the candidate but maybe we won’t be able to until uh you know the conditions allow us to but that’s that’s a good update so thanks for that

1:41:24 thanks bill um anything else underneath that

1:41:29 no we’re all set yeah thanks all right great so that leads us uh into the schedule of bills so everybody should have been able to view the invoices uh as well as the schedules um so can i get a motion to approve the schedule of bills totaling three hundred and ninety three thousand twenty dollars and sixty-two cents so megan so megan moved second second sarah second thank you um any questions or comments on that schedule

1:42:26 uh just one comment um i think it’s with nrt and the transportation it looks like they are actually giving us a little bit of a discount they’re calling it a covid19 discount um understandably we’ve talked about this before that we need to support our vendors so that they will be there when we open back up but it was good to see that um i think in you know one of the invoices it was uh eighteen thousand dollars and they had a three thousand dollar discount they might be making some assumptions related to the cost of fuel and things like that so i don’t know if people can maybe comment on that

1:43:17 michelle michelle hi um yes we have contacted all of our transportation vendors um primarily their special education vendors and north reading transportation has agreed to bill us and every other community at 78 this is a savings due to um fuel and maintenance they are keeping their staff on and paid um and they will also they because they’re concerned that they will not come back in the fall if they do not keep them retained um lbk is the second largest transportation company that we use and they have agreed to bill us at 61 which is the cost of their payroll um in any all other costs they are

1:44:04 absorbing and um there are three companies that are not billing us at all which is a huge savings which i’ll talk about in the monthly report shortly and um there’s one additional company that we have not heard of heard from yet but it’s a smaller monthly charge so it should not make much of a difference either way great great thanks michelle thanks that’s good to hear

1:44:35 okay so i will call for a roll call sarah gold yes jen schaffner yes yes um megan taylor can you hear me yes sarah fox yes

1:44:57 and david harris yes all right so motion carries five to zero okay so that brings us to the vote to award the high school tennis court construction contract uh bill do you wanna fill us in on that

1:45:38 sure sure absolutely um so as you know or may know um the boosters group has agreed to refor repair and resurface our tennis courts five courts located at marblehead high school um they had an amazing fundraising campaign and have come up with over a hundred thousand dollars for our tennis courts so as soon as they reach their fundraising goal we were able to put this project out to bid and we put it out in march um initially we had a bid due date of the end of march we postponed that due to our closure um but postponed it to early april we realized we couldn’t keep postponing it until we reopened so on april 8th we opened um the bids we

1:46:25 received four bids ranging from fifty five thousand four hundred eighty five dollars up through one hundred thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars so quite a range of um prices for the same project and um at this point we have done our due diligence in researching the low bidder and have found that they seem to be very responsive responsible and responsive and we would um like to request the school committee approve a contract to east coast seal coding in the amount of fifty five thousand four hundred eighty five dollars um the company is ready to basically jump um on the contract once we can award it

1:47:10 and i do want to also mention that um i had discussions with jason silver as well as andrew petty regarding the project because of the the covert covert 19 situation and i wanted to make sure we’re um all set to move forward with it and andrew had indicated as long as we uh maintain proper social distancing requirements that we are okay to proceed anytime now so as soon as we have a contract and we receive the checks from the boosters group which is actually i’m scheduled to receive those on tuesday we are all set to sign and proceed with this project

1:47:47 very exciting thanks michelle so i will ask for a moment so i just have a quick question i’m gonna just ask for a motion first megan is that okay

1:47:59 okay yeah fine sorry um oh let me pull up okay so can i have a motion to award the marblehead high school tennis court repair and resurfacing project to east coast sealcoating of abington massachusetts in the amount of 55 485 dollars and to authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the committee so moved so moved megan moved second david second okay go ahead megan um michelle thanks for this this is great news that we can still move ahead

1:48:46 with this even despite kind of um the current situation but can you remind me the timeline of this you know or has it modified what are we looking at um the timeline should be most likely four to six weeks to completion um i don’t have a definite we actually gave them leeway of up to i believe six months to complete the project because we thought there was going to be a backlog and we were getting really nervous but come to find out these companies really have no work at this point um so that was a benefit to us in terms of the pricing and in terms of the availability so literally they’ll be able to start this project within the next week to 10 days after we sign the contract that’s awesome great thank you

1:49:35 sarah fox you’ve got your hand raised yes my question um first of all i i want to thank the boosters in las vegas what they raise and how quickly they raise it is nothing short of amazing um and so much of what we do would not be possible otherwise but um my question is about the swing in the um pricing that’s like a that’s 100 swing um which usually makes me question the scope who is vetting the scope of these bids um to make sure that we’re comparing apples to apples and who’s overseeing the project i’m just concerned because that’s such a massive swing in price it is um it was very concerning to us as soon as we opened it as well we did receive a

1:50:23 price initially back last fall when the um project was just being in the in the initial stages and the fundraising was just getting going um we did receive a price of 90 000 so we expected it to come in between 80 and 90. um but as i said that the companies aren’t working right now essentially um well east coast sealcoating definitely is not um we did we actually released the specifications so we release how many coats need to be put on the the court what grade it needs to be um it’s very specific as to what they need to provide to us so there really is no um wiggle room shall we say unless they want to give us more than what we specified but the

1:51:09 minimums that we specified are absolutely certain um and we have done our reference checks muffy was very concerned about the 55 000 price we’ve received and she has also done some reference checks on her own um and she has talked to the company and she’s very very confident in it as well at this point um and todd bloodgood will be overseeing the project for us

1:51:43 any other questions no i don’t have any other questions i’d just like to uh reiterate my thanks to the boosters um time and time again they step up to raise money um the tennis team is uh you know there’s a strong participation there it’s been a successful team in marblehead and quite honestly i think well i guess uh i can say this i think i think we’re probably all embarrassed that the if you saw the condition of those tennis courts at the high school that they were able to get to this condition and i know that we started this year

1:52:30 with uh jen shafter and a few others and we’re starting to look forward on how we continue to maintain you know the school properties and um our recreational fields and so i think this is one thing that is just um another example where we’ve received really outstanding support in a short amount of time to raise the money for the tennis teams and quite honestly these courts can be used by the public when it’s not being used by the you know the school tennis team so thanks to everybody who’s been involved for that and um i look forward um to working with the school committee members and everybody else going forward on

1:53:15 how we continue to maintain our facilities and what we might need to do so that um we can keep them you know up to par and certainly it’s nice to have the support of these boosters but that we can uh you know keep them in good shape and um not need to let them get in such disrepair that that we get into a situation like this so thanks to everybody it’s real it’s really exciting a lot of people involved and um it’s great news to hear that we’re going to be able to move forward with it absolutely well said david all right um if anybody else doesn’t have anything to say um i will take the vote

1:54:02 so sarah gold yes megan taylor

1:54:13 yes yes sarah fox yes yes jen schaffner

1:54:46 i’m not sure if jenna’s actually there so um

1:54:58 um we’ll count her as an abstention oh hold on

1:55:05 i just got a text from her she’s trying to get back in with the phone

1:55:54 um um jen is on

1:56:03 okay um okay um i think we’re gonna have to just unfortunately as an abstention um because she isn’t popping up in the waiting room

1:56:24 let’s see let’s see i can you can always message in her vote like i hear anyone yes can you hear me now on the video yes all right so yes all right great so that motion carries five to zero

1:56:44 thank you thanks everyone all right michelle i think you probably are still up for the fy 20 monthly report yes i yes i am thank you absolutely actually apologize um i just i’m gonna run to the restroom so um i’m just gonna leave megan in charge for a moment no problem no problem great um i apologize and if i am coming in and out my internet’s not great tonight either i don’t know what’s going on all over the place um

1:57:22 so today in the dropbox you received um a monthly budget report and along with a memo and the third page of that memo detailed the budget’s short shortfall and surplus as we identified at the last report on march 20th i believe is the date that we put i put it together um we were looking at a surplus of just over sixteen hundred dollars and and that was with the identified salary accounts in the identified deficit accounts that we knew we were going to have at that time things have certainly changed quite significantly due to the closure um and just due to other circumstances and i want to give you an update where we are at this point

1:58:08 i’m not going to read through the memo but as of um april 30th which was last thursday we had spent 74 of our operating budget or 29 million 221 dollars

1:58:26 and then i will um ask you to focus on the last page of my memo which is the um listing of the accounts that are in deficit and have a surplus so we’ll start with the out of district tuitions this is the biggest swing that we’ve had since march at the time back in march we were estimating a deficit combined for tuitions and transportations of four hundred thousand dollars at this point we are only looking at an out of district tuition deficit of two hundred and thirteen thousand dollars that is actually a swing um and just a tuition line of a hundred and seventy thousand 000 so that is savings to us those are real dollars and um we do not think much else will change in terms of these figures for the rest of this year

1:59:12 this year this year so that that deficit has decreased by 170 000 to our favor um yes and electric utilities is the same deficit that it was um previously in march of 72 688 that was the deficit that we incurred before we um started charging our gas and electric bills to the energy reserve account at the town level so we have tapped into that reserve and the town will absorb all those bills for the remainder of this fiscal year the telephone line um is still looking to be in deficit roughly about sixteen thousand dollars um we’re currently about six thousand dollars in deficit and do expect that

1:59:57 once we pay the last few months of the of the year um it will be roughly in the 15 16 000 range

2:00:08 um the next line tsa 403b benefits this is the tax sheltered annuity benefit that we offer to our unit a union members um we expect this account to be in deficit by 15 000 that figure should actually be solidified in the next couple weeks but that budget item has been corrected in the next fiscal year’s budget as well food service operations um this is a new one that is showing up on our radar as of this financial report this is due to the ongoing payment of salaries and benefits to our food service workers as you know we are paying all of our regular permanent workers not just food service but food service no longer has a

2:00:56 revenue source of for the sale of meals so the only revenue we are receiving at this point for that fund is the state and federal reimbursement for the free meals that we are offering to students at this time and we are offering two meals a day breakfast and lunch monday through friday to any student in need but the um the salary and benefit cost to keep those food service workers completely employed through the end of the school year is going to cost us about an additional 125 000

2:01:34 another new line that we are tracking right now is kobit 19 cost these are for additional cleaning supplies disinfectant supplies and masks and thermometers so far we have spent eight thousand eight hundred and thirteen dollars without a funding source these fund these costs can actually be submitted to mema and fema for reimbursement at a later date but right now we are carrying that deficit so over overall our projected shortfall at this point in the year we are expecting um the shortfall of four hundred and fifty thousand five hundred and one dollars um say actually

2:02:18 last month at um this time we were looking at a projected deficit of 523 688 so even though we have these additional costs due to the closure that we are absorbing our deficit um you know changed to our favor at this point um so the surpluses that are going to offset these deficits some of them are new some of them are recurring from the last monthly report first one is special ed transportation we are currently looking at a surplus of a hundred and three thousand dollars this is actually due to the savings in the reduced charges for the monthly bills as well as the um vendors that are not charging us for that so initially we were looking at a

2:03:04 deficit of seventeen thousand dollars so we’ve had a swing of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars in that line and we expect that we will save roughly a hundred and three thousand water utilities we are still looking and still have the deficit i mean i’m sorry still had the surplus of twelve thousand five hundred and twelve dollars this was the additional amount that we had in the account before we um actually started using the water reserve so we are currently using the water reserve and that surplus will remain in place throughout the end of the year substitute cost this is another new line due to the closure we currently have a surplus of forty five thousand seven hundred and seventy dollars we were anticipating that this account would go into deficit um if we were to

2:03:50 remain open due to the closure we are not needing to uh utilize our day-to-day subs so we have a savings in that account that will not change throughout the rest of the year home hospital tutoring salaries um we have a surplus of ten thousand dollars roughly and that will remain in place this was initially identified at the last monthly update lane changes um this is also in place from last month the total is 57 283 dollars this is four column movement on the pay scale for um our teachers and we are not using those funds this year for that purpose it’s the remainder left over after they had

2:04:37 made all their changes coaching salary is the same thing we had that um identified last month it’s 170 224 um some of this may end up being used depending on what we do in terms of the spring coaching salaries but at this time that is my best guess estimate of what we will have for surplus unemployment this line has actually over my estimate has changed since last monthly update we do have a surplus in this account of roughly i want to say 35 000 at this point um i’m seeing a lot of activity coming through in terms of our day-to-day subs and other employees that are no longer employees of ours but if they had been

2:05:24 employed with us for the past 12 months we will be picking up portion of their claims so i’m just seeing an uptick in the activity we do not have any actual claims that we are paying just yet but i’m seeing a lot of notices come through for potential claims so i estimate that we will use some of that surplus but i do estimate we will end with a surplus of roughly 12 000 and then the rest of the lines the business managers salaries the assistant superintendent salaries um and the other salaries were identified last month and um some of those are due to the interim positions the first to the business manager and the assistant superintendent the central registrar the hr assistant were hired in february so they were also due to uh

2:06:12 uh late hiring savings and then tech director salaries also due to rigorous reorganization at central office because we did not fill the director of operations position um so the total savings identified throughout the payroll accounts and um these other additional closure related savings total six hundred fifty three thousand one hundred and seventy five dollars so the overall surplus right now we’re looking at is two hundred and two thousand six hundred and seventy four dollars and that is the amount that was um just about sixteen hundred dollars last month so we certainly have come a long way since the sixteen hundred dollars um and we’re looking to be in pretty good shape at this time and i do just wanna add that these figures

2:07:00 do not include any supply or material line that we will also have a surplus in um we’re starting to go through all our purchase orders to see what we can liquidate see what you’re no longer going to need we obviously aren’t going to need any large copy paper purchases um certain supplies for in classroom activities so we we do expect some savings there as well

2:07:26 thank you michelle sarah can i uh can you hear me first of all yep we can hear you thank you and is uh is the chat that michelle was talking through is that up on the screen it is still up on the screen terrific so uh earlier today at the liaison budget liaisons meeting uh i i made the point that i’d like to repeat uh now uh first i want to thank michelle for all the work on this uh you know this is uh this is a very very transparent report uh i hope you’re pleased with with the way that it’s been presented and uh

2:08:12 the detail with which these monthly reports have have come your way the one piece the uh that while the 202 000 surplus uh is you know it’s terrific in terms of our financial health uh and this clearly to me indicates that the f1 will finish fy 20 uh in in a very good position um but just in terms of a small nuance and and bringing this to your attention because i i think it’s important to uh to note that the way that the budget has been tracked uh the monitoring of the budget uh

2:08:57 uh uh for this year i i think the point i want to make is really underscores this so uh in march when you received the last monthly report uh michelle went through a similar process had some information the uh the surplus we were projecting at that time was uh approximately a thousand six hundred and eighty dollars uh but we also at that time had a conversation uh where we let you know that uh you know the day before that meeting i think it was michelle eric and i met and we had gone back through uh our special education obligations and we felt at the time that we were confident there’d be

2:09:44 another 50 or 60 thousand dollars in special education savings and so anecdotally at that time we were suggesting that the surplus would be in the 50 to 60 000 range so fast forward to uh this monthly report you would note that if you know under the budget shortfall categories uh where we have our food service operations of 125 000 and covid19 costs if if we were not in this situation and the school year had progressed as it had been up until march 13th our food service operations would have continued we would have collected the breakfast and lunch and the federal reimbursement revenue

2:10:31 reimbursement revenue reimbursement revenue so we wouldn’t be showing a short fall under food service operations of 125 000 we also wouldn’t be showing that 8800 for covid19 costs so in reality under that scenario the projected shortfall at this point in the year would have been uh would be 317 000 on the flip side when we look at the surplus uh so we wouldn’t have had the savings of and three thousand dollars of special ed transportation we would have been utilizing that uh and we

2:11:18 we we uh and we would have been paying our coaches so that 273 000 of surplus wouldn’t be there but what that so what that translates to to is there would be a surplus of around 380 000 once we back out from the 653 the 103 000 for transportation and 170 000 for coaching salaries and the shortfall as i indicated would be 317 so we would still be in that range of 50 to 60 000 actually we would have been a little

2:12:03 above that at 63 000 so the point i’m trying to make is that the process that michelle is utilizing the uh protocols for monitoring and reporting out uh by by highlighting what i just did i think it illustrates that the practice is solid and that are tracking certainly that that we are that are tracking from month to month uh certainly suggests that that it’s a reliable process so uh again i just want to thank michelle for her effort and all her work uh in that regard so so that is uh that is positive news and uh

2:12:49 i’m glad we were able to report it a second time tonight absolutely thanks bill and thanks michelle um i’ve got a couple of members with hands raised so jen i think you had your hand raised first go ahead sarah did you call on i don’t know who you called on yeah jen go ahead

2:13:21 okay good i’m sorry i’ve had crazy internet today um so michelle i just had a quick question for you and and bill may be clarified and maybe i misheard you but um i thought you had said that the budget shortfall currently is projected at 450 000 and last month it was projected at 523 thousand dollars is that correct

2:13:49 correct yes i may have misheard you so i just want so last month 5 23 this month it’s 4 50 oh sorry yes

2:14:05 okay so last month it was 5 23 and i don’t have the details in front of me i was trying to find them online i can’t this month it’s 450 with the increase of food service operations of 125 000 shortfall so we’re out we made it up somewhere else yes most of the swing was an out of district tuitions that decreased by a hundred and seventy thousand dollars okay so we had a decrease of a hundred and seventy thousand dollars okay all right then that i’m sorry that that explains it um and so we have had a decrease because of out-of-district tuitions in our shortfall and an increase in our surplus because of covet-related um

2:14:50 um um expenses that we are not incurring so that’s where our surplus of 202 000 came from in a jump up from 1600 in one month correct and also we no longer have the deficit um and specialization thank you expectation we were anticipating a seventeen thousand dollar deficit in substitutes we were anticipating a twenty thousand dollar deficit so yeah right and that’s because of covid so we have this surplus in large part due to covered um expenses that we’re not incurring and a significant drop in out of district tuition correct

2:15:32 but but just a question but yeah i i disagree with that jen as far as how you’re classifying that go ahead bill well i’m just trying to i was just trying to understand but mostly no it’s not it’s it’s not because of covenant but go ahead bill so what i was going to say is no kovit 19 has had an impact clearly on both the shortfall and the surplus uh however the full 202 000 serb surplus is not all related to covid19 i would suggest uh in actuality the analysis suggests to me that

2:16:19 approximately a hundred and thirty thousand of the surplus is covered 19 related i agree you know what bill i missed a bunch of that it might have just been me right yep let me try again uh so i agree that the swings in the budget shortfall number and the uh projected surplus numbers are in large part related to school closure uh however not the entire two hundred and two thousand dollar surplus is not related to school closure but rather approximately

2:17:05 130 to 135 000 of it is without school closure my analysis the analysis suggests that we would have a surplus of about 63 000 does does that great thank you yep that’s perfect thank you sarah did you have your hand raised as well um yes no i just wanted to thank um the central admin a lot because as as we’ve known all along since the fall we’ve really been able to balance our budget in large part i mean if you take the covid piece out

2:17:51 by not filling those central admin roles there was tremendous savings through that and and that’s been able to become possible largely in part from everyone there working as a team and wearing so many different hats um and i just wanted to to thank them for that because if everyone wasn’t willing to be such a team player i don’t think we would have had the success we had this year and i think it’s in large part to to them all working so wonderfully together thank thank you sir can i jump in sure um you know i agree with with sarah fox absolutely um michelle

2:18:36 this is brilliant um not just for the bottom line number but you’ve been here six months maybe and the amount of work that you’ve done in that short period of time is is amazing so i really want to thank you for that um the work you’ve done and then the clarity of the information that you provide so a huge kudos to you thank you very much to you and your team and bill also to you and john moray i’m not sure if he’s still on the call but i know you guys did a tremendous amount of work over the summer in the fall too so thank you for your work and your continued fiscal management thank you we have a great team we really do

2:19:23 and we are incredibly fortunate to have you yes we are david you raised your hand well uh well uh megan stole my thunder but i know i think everybody understands uh the work that was done leading up to michelle coming in um as we anticipated her arrival in november and michelle has stepped in and seamlessly just you know jumped into the budget worked with bill worked with john worked with the liaisons to uh develop this not only for fy 20 but fy21

2:20:08 fy21 fy21 going forward and additionally um michelle is now playing a key role on the building committee and it’s a 54 million dollar project and she’s uh playing a key role there and is keeping uh keeping another good set of eyes on everything that’s going on with the building committee so you know thanks bill thanks john and thanks michelle for everybody who have uh worked to provide the clarity and the transparency um with these budget numbers that i’ve never seen since i’ve been on the building committee or the school committee so thank you very much

2:20:55 all right um if there are no more questions or comments about that um they’ll have you stop sharing your screen and then we can move forward to the status of the pre-k and kindergarten tuition payments

2:21:16 uh uh so this is an item that uh i wanted uh to put on the school committee a meeting agenda and have the school committee take action on uh because uh over the last month or so we have been receiving inquiries about the payment of pre-k and k tuitions and uh and we have continued billing uh you know our our april bills are now uh approximately april 10th uh the may bills went out this week and there’s been feedback uh that that we’re aware of uh we know that

2:22:01 there are families that there are some families that are experiencing you know economic hardship because of what’s happening and we want to be really sensitive to that uh i believe there are some families out there who who feel uh that now that we’ve gone to remote learning that uh perhaps there are some questions about the value added of paying tuition for full day k uh and then there are families that uh are continuing to pay their tuition uh so in my memo and i don’t want to go through the whole thing uh i wanted to make sure that i outlined uh and provided uh some information

2:22:49 relative to pre-k and full day k tuition in order to run uh pre-k programming uh for both um uh students who uh uh where we’re where we provide uh special services to and to students who don’t uh we do have to charge tuition for students uh who we don’t provide the special services too and that’s a really important funding source for the district to meet the goal of having a

2:23:34 fully integrated uh pre-k program which is really important to the growth and development of all of the children who attend uh program and as we look forward to a new building opening uh where there are a pre-k to additional pre-k classrooms uh scheduled for that we’re really looking forward to the opportunity to be able to extend expand this program which i think has huge benefits to our school community uh however we do have staff who are employed who work in these programs that uh the tuition that we collect helps to fund uh the salaries of these employees

2:24:21 and so uh it is important that as we move forward through these last couple of months uh that we endeavor to uh uh continue a process where uh where tuition revenue is uh continuing to come into the district uh as you know we’ve we’ve we embarked on a pledge at the beginning of school closure that uh we would uh we felt it was important to uh continue to pay our staff and uh that was that was a commitment that was made on both the school side and the town side and we’ve continued to be to be able to do that and we will continue to do that through the end of the school year

2:25:08 but we do rely on these uh these tuition payments so in order to uh be able to address concerns that have been raised by some families and some families who are who have already paid for the full year who are requesting some kind of reimbursement

2:25:30 i felt it was not appropriate that any kind of decision on whether to accept the tuition or not accept tuition other than for economic reasons which the school committee uh understands and and uh and knows that that we have a process in place to to help families and assist families back i felt it was important for the school committee to take action on a recommendation that i’ve made and given all due consideration to uh to all of the various factors that are taking place during during these challenging times uh and

2:26:16 to avoid uh perhaps um you know causing uh uh discomfort with some families who really are experiencing economic hardship uh i feel it’s appropriate at this time to in looking at this uh to continue to invoice for the services because we believe we are providing the services uh but that we give uh relief to those who need it and uh ask for those who are in a position to uh and believe that that you know it’s appropriate to keep paying to be able to do so

2:27:03 so uh my recommendation to uh the school committee uh would be to uh instruct the business office to continue sending a monthly pre-k and uh full-day k tuition invoices so that would be for the months of may and june as i said uh june may have already gone out uh and that but that the payment of said invoices will be optional and families will make that decision whether they’ll pay the invoice or not we’ve received many april payments already but mostly would provide would would impact may and june

2:27:54 okay thanks bill um so before we discuss can i get a motion to instruct the business office to continue sending monthly pre-k and full-day kindergarten tuition invoices and that the payment of said invoices be optional for april may and june so moved so moved jen moved well second well second megan second thank you all right um any discussion on that i just want to note that i’m going to extend because i am a kindergarten parent so i don’t think it’s right for me to vote on okay thanks sarah

2:28:39 i have a question um bill do you have a feel for what the financial impact will be

2:28:50 based on feedback you’ve had today right so michelle and i have talked about this uh based on uh where we are you know we could see we think the worst case scenario is that we see an impact of of uh you know it could be forty thousand dollars uh but but given where we are with the surplus uh you know we would be able to handle that and that’s the you know i think that’s the worst case scenario okay and from the feedback you’ve had is that predominantly full-day kindergarten parents or is it just across the board between both programs i think it’s been more it’s been much more full day

2:29:46 okay so i’ll call for a vote sarah gold yes jen schaffner yes megan taylor yes david harris yes and sarah fox is abstaining so the motion carries four to zero with one abstention

2:30:09 all right so that brings us to the fy 21 clerk compensation plan

2:30:20 sarah uh so this is this is an annual agenda item that comes before the school committee and uh i’ve i’ve been able to go back three years and it’s always come to the school committee the first meeting in may of our corpse and in particular can i i can bring this up i think uh

2:30:45 see if that’s it yeah you all can see that

2:30:54 yes okay yes okay now let me try it again

2:31:07 okay okay um so

2:31:14 so the court’s compensation plan covers and this is on page two of the document you received covers uh the positions that you see uh up on the screen they are categorized into groups group one group two group three and uh and the uh salary schedule uh is based on a uh five-step system uh in each group uh receives a uh you know depending on the group that that determines their weekly compensation uh you know there are some positions that we do not uh we we no longer have

2:32:01 we don’t fund uh we don’t don’t do not have a high school athletic secretary or clerk at this point uh we do not have a district office receptionist although as as you know our central registrar which was an 80 position uh that individual was taking on receptionist duties at the central office uh let’s see so uh and we don’t have an administrative assistant to the director of technology operations and the assistant superintendent uh but uh this this uh this plan covers approximately 25 employees

2:32:46 and again it’s an annual piece of the oh i’m sorry the point i wanted to make is that all of these positions are positions that are not covered or are not included in any of the other bargaining units that uh that exist within the district so on an annual basis the school committee uh approves uh this plan the only change to this plan uh i believe even the last number of years would be the salary piece found on step two on page two and uh it reflects uh a

2:33:32 two and a half percent increase in salary and that is in line with all of the other bargaining units and uh

2:33:44 that is that has been the procedure for this group of employees that the salary adjustment uh has been consistent with the salary increases negotiated uh by all of the school departments of bargaining units

2:34:01 so this is presented tonight for your approval

2:34:06 all right thanks bill um can i get you to stop sharing your screen so that i can just read the motion that you thank you all right actually can i just add one thing i don’t know bill the actual document has the current years figures and the updated updated figures are on the last page of that document in the chart

2:34:38 so if they vote the figures i uh no i updated those figures

2:35:01 it looks like it’s updated it is updated because that group step five the current weekly compensation is a thousand eleven dollars okay okay got it thank you yeah there was a copy of michelle you’re right there was a copy out there that i think i sent you that this this chart hadn’t been updated yet okay i thought i saw the one today and i didn’t think it was updated this one is correct thank you sorry about that thanks

2:35:39 okay so can i get a motion to approve the fy 21 clerk clerk’s compensation and benefit plan as proposed

2:36:00 second david second all right um any questions on that all right i don’t i’m not seeing anybody with any questions so i will move for a vote um sarah gold yes megan taylor yes yes sarah fox yes david harris yes jen schaffner yes all right the motion carries five to zero

2:36:50 all right so that brings us to the fy 21 budget update

2:37:08 okay okay so you all uh should have received a very brief memo and uh a copy of the latest budget adjustment tracking sheet uh i assume you can all see this on your screen so this is our latest version i’m i i’ll go through if you have questions on this sheet i’ll uh you know on how it works i’ll i’ll be happy to answer those but we’ve been we’ve we’ve shared this a number of times at previous meetings so uh as you are aware uh we designed a budget development process when we laid out the initial

2:37:53 presentation to the school committee back in early february that our intention uh with the understanding that the budget development process and getting from the initial draft budget to a final vogue and school committee budget that goes on to town meeting is really an evolving and an iterative process and that uh in order to have an effective process and end up with a budget that uh clearly that that most clearly and accurately reflects for all intents and purposes the educational plan for the following school year for the next school year

2:38:42 uh it’s wise as we learn new information while going through the process that adjustments be made and so we followed that protocol uh i hope that it is a process that you have uh that you are satisfied with and uh frankly i hope it’s it’s a process that uh as you move forward into uh future years uh that you you continue um uh so but that’ll be you know uh your your choice and and maybe else’s choice uh so this has been updated uh as of may

2:39:28 5th two two days ago when you look at the various adjustments that have been made uh you know with the exception of the utility budget adjustment that we made and we all know the reason why that was done uh all the other adjustments relate either to adjustments in special education costs or adjustments in staffing and the educ the special education adjustments i think are really very straightforward and understandable because that’s the one part of our budget that we know no matter what time of the year it is whether you know we’re monitoring the

2:40:16 approved budget or or in this case whether we’re consistently reviewing you know our proposed budget uh special education uh expenses are are always changing and uh so we have endeavored to be as up-to-date and as accurate as we can so again with the exception of the utility adjustments all of the other adjustments have been relative to staff and in special education in terms of the staff uh adjustments uh none of the these adjustments reflect uh you know the laying off of any staff uh

2:41:01 the elimination of any staff with the exception of one position and that is the uh the march 5th note of reduce the vet special ed salary line so that actually is in relation to our academic skills program at the middle school uh we have two uh classrooms for that specialized program and based on the numbers you know based on the immigration from the sixth grade and the numbers leaving the eighth grade to go to the high school our enrollment numbers for that program clearly suggest that we only need one

2:41:47 one teacher for that program so we have uh we have reduced that position and uh we also have a retirement in special education at that position so it it’s not you know necessarily impacting uh you know any any uh any staff because of who’s losing their job uh and then the other pieces are all related to uh you know we had uh we were carrying a teacher salary uh a kindergarten teacher salary who had been out on leave last year and uh we we learned uh in early march that she was not returning so there’s a savings there and then uh

2:42:34 you know we found the the uh we found the piece around the ell director salary line uh that was budget uh uh and we don’t need that because we’re we’ve combined the positions and then we did have uh remember we first reported that we were aware of five retirements and uh but we only budgeted four at the time uh that the draft was presented because one of the teachers uh had not quite made up their mind was waiting till later in the year and so uh that teacher uh in the last couple of months uh weeks did decide uh to retire i i don’t understand why but they did make that choice

2:43:19 and uh so we’ve made that adjustment so as we have gone through this process we we always we were we had our eye on you know a target number which was related to past practice around budgeting in town and the practice had been that the town was willing to support a budget that was a combination of the previous year’s budget and the cost of of uh of bogging obligations for uh step increases for all of our bargaining units in uh and if there are step increases for non-union individuals like the one you just

2:44:06 approved the clerk’s benefit plan as well as the cost of a cola and uh that was that is uh annually accounted for all employees so uh those two uh factors uh on the town side they were targeting 41 084 it didn’t necessarily mean that’s where the school committee was going to vote a final budget but uh given that the adjustments that have been made have not impacted uh the original budget plan uh the priorities and the needs that have been outlined uh it’s in my opinion it is uh uh

2:44:53 it is the uh the right thing to do to make those adjustments so where we currently stand now uh we currently stand with these adjustments at a budget proposal of forty thousand eight hundred and ninety eight dollars and three hundred and eight hundred ninety eight thousand three hundred fifty six dollars which is actually 186 thousand dollars below what has been that traditional target uh and uh so i wanted to make just make sure that uh everybody was clear on that um in our budget liaison meeting earlier today that was alluded to by mr berman earlier

2:45:39 uh jason silva who was president you know provided a uh provided a an overview of uh of adjustments or changes in uh revenue and some expenses on the town side that uh revenue piece directory relation to the current economic conditions and forecasts for both local revenue and what state aid might be in fy 21 uh and the news is not good news uh the uh

2:46:24 those combined projected revenues that that go towards uh you know our our annual budgets book the time and school side he’s estimating at somewhere between 1.1 and 1.6 million dollars so uh from the townside perspective i believe it’s fair to say that uh you know that outlook will uh change uh certainly they’re thinking about uh what the town can afford uh let me see so uh just the way that uh the process where they’re at right now in in coming up with that number is uh as jason

2:47:09 explained uh they were back about 12 years 11 years to the last time there was a a recession and that was the 2008 2009 2010 era where uh with the which was the last recession and not just in marblehead but across the state local and state budgets were impacted dramatically so what they did was they went back to that period of time and looked at uh what were what were the results you know uh what was the reduction in stage and what was the uh reduction in local revenue so uh

2:47:55 so they went through some numbers there so that was really just a general overview there was no direction relative to that necessarily i would say that uh you know the budget subcommittee uh it was helpful for the budget subcommittee to hear uh what the information from the town side uh the budget subcommittee needs to meet again as a follow-up to to have a more in-depth discussion of what what that means and be ready to come back to the school committee with uh you know i think some more uh direction perhaps uh the one of the uh

2:48:43 one of the circumstances currently is that at the state level there they have you know they’ve actually gone back to the starting point for creating the you know the fy21 budget on the state level to the point we talked about this at the last meeting uh they held new uh revenue forecast hearings i’ve heard i haven’t heard any results uh you know any further information from that hearing uh the state is i think being very very cautious and judicious in terms of reviewing numbers and i think it won’t be till the end of

2:49:31 may when we get a sense of uh of where the state is at in terms of state aid uh any projections there so so given the timing giving that given that the timing and mobile head has been delayed and i’m sorry i’m i’m talking a lot but i’ll work this out even that the budget process has been delayed i you all know that town meeting is now was moved to june 29th the finance committee has uh communicated with us that they have uh pennsylvania monday june 15th as uh as the date that uh school the schools will meet with the finance committee to review our budget and they

2:50:18 will uh take a vote on our budget that night and uh so in terms of uh the school committee i my sense is that we have more we we have some time through the end of may uh i think that we should plan on scheduling a budget hearing either the first or second week in june and uh so we’ve met that uh stat tutorial your obligation your obligation and as we move forward over the next three four weeks uh get better information and uh i think we will have a much more in-depth discussion on may 21st uh relative to uh you know what you

2:51:04 all are thinking uh for the fy 21 budget what what we’re thinking internally about the budget and you know uh i know what do we do do we hold back do we come up with a you know uh a second plan you know depending on where we are at so these are things that i know internally we’ve think about so i’ll i’ll leave it at that uh sarah and megan did i leave anything out please please feel free to to add to anything i just said

2:51:50 the only thing um you know i think what you and michelle have put together is um you know a really good view of where we’re at now um you know jason is very detailed in his approach and very thoughtful and how he um you know goes about his planning but he’s also realistic so you’re right it was um it was good to hear kind of where where they’re at with with their impact analysis so there’s certainly you know more to do and more to come but i think you know we’re in a good place from our numbers and you know obviously we’re working collaboratively with on the town side

2:52:35 and we we had also i think it’s important to point out we had talked to touched on this a little bit earlier um where we all looked at that very comprehensive outline that bill provided for our re-entry plan we don’t have financial drivers for that yet but there most certainly will be financial drivers so we just have to make sure that we’re incorporating them if possible in our budget because as we all know um once it’s once exploded it’s voted so if we need to find money it will have to come from somewhere um and also you know where jason talked about that it was very sobering to hear you know associated numbers with the shortfall for next year especially when you think about the schools thrive about 60 of the

2:53:23 town budget so um 60 of 1.1 to 1.6 is a large number um he did not imply at all that we needed to absorb but we just need to be mindful i think moving forward

2:53:55 sorry yeah i just had a couple questions um for either bill or megan and sarah um so the first thing is um the the timeline which bill basically you gave us the timeline we’re looking at uh end date of june 15th possible possible is that that’s right yes and then we would perhaps do our budget need our budget hearing after either after that or around there um okay okay um so this number the 40 million 898 356 do we is this do we think that’s going to change

2:54:43 do we know or we think that’s my sense is that what i anticipate we will hear from the town that they don’t they don’t believe that that is a number that can be supported okay okay so okay so then some i guess the subcommittee or you you and the subcommittee will have had those conversation we’ll that’ll transpire over the next few weeks prior to the budget hearing oh oh definitely okay i anticipate there’ll be much conversation and we’ve already uh you know though we’ve already determined there’ll be another liaisons meeting in two weeks okay great that will be

2:55:36 okay so from what i see um on this chronology uh the adjustments that were made were uh all um non non-classroom facing basically there’s no programming changes at this point this was all savings we were able to find without it affecting students but we don’t know what that’s correct right okay okay um so two final questions so we have going back to our earlier part of this meeting a couple hours ago we have a surplus of a little over two hundred thousand dollars and we have a gap of 186 thousand dollars we’re looking at the 202 thousand dollar surplus no gap well i don’t mean gap dave i just i guess between what our initial prison

2:56:22 was and where we are now which actually doesn’t necessarily matter i guess my question is where does the two the 200 2 000 surplus for the assuming that’s what we end the year with we still have time before we end the year um does that go back what happens to that so so that’s a good question it did come up in the liaison meeting

2:56:49 uh in ben berman’s remarks in public comment he indicated that uh you know in his opinion that would go back to the town that helped with the budget situation uh but at the meeting uh my recollection is that uh we decided that we needed to continue to talk about that you know enough so sarah actually made a point well is that two hundred and two thousand dollars an opportunity to perhaps pre-pay some special education tuitions which we’re allowed to do for the summer months we purchase some you know supplies and materials

2:57:37 which in effect would cause that number of forty thousand eight nine eight to be reduced even further by that by whatever amount is used for those purposes yep uh so so i think that will be uh i think we still need to have further discussions about that that was my understanding as to where it was left okay so that so that brings me to my the next concern i had which was this was this was the special ad right so we have a we’ve had a tuition um reduction out of district tuition reduction recently uh but we all know you know how how fluid that can be so that you know the it just i’m throwing it out there just concerns me

2:58:24 what we could possibly be looking at next year with anything unexpected or unexpected um although we do still have the special ed reserve you know and we haven’t touched that this year so um

2:58:41 okay my last uh question to you and i don’t know if you know this bill um the cares act recently passed by the fed by the congress did increase or did make allocations to local school districts with a formula based on our title one allocation the title one is a direct grant but do we know if the cares act version of that will also be a direct grant or is that going to go to the town so in other words is that perhaps a an another revenue source that we hadn’t accounted for or will that go like a typical chapter 70. and that’ll go to the town so so thank you for that question uh that’s that was direct that question is directly related to

2:59:26 uh comments i made when we were talking about the re-entry plan and i indicated that it would be about a hundred thousand dollars of federal money that we’d be receiving that we could use for remedial supplemental support for for uh for those kind of services so that’s the money you just talked about that’s what i was talking about so in under the cares act which was the first bill that congress passed 15 billion dollars was allocated for uh to go back to local education agencies

3:00:11 massachusetts will receive approximately 215 million dollars of that money and that we’ve been told by desi that that money will be distributed to locals uh using this the title one funding formula and so for us that means somewhere between a hundred thousand and a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars because that’s what we receive for title one so that’s what we’re anticipating and those funds can be used uh over a period of the next 27 months and uh so uh when going back to sarah’s comment about

3:00:57 you know this the budget we haven’t we haven’t identified any resources for what we may need for re-entry next year uh my belief is that that hundred thousand dollars or so uh will be available for those kinds of things okay thank you suggesting that that will be enough money no no but that’s what that’s what we’ll determine over the next uh month or so awesome you’re welcome all right bill thank you um any other comments on that anybody all right bill can i just get you to

3:01:43 stop sharing your screen thanks i will sorry no worries um all right so that then should move us on to the school committee communications um i wanted to add the school name discussion back onto the list just because that was sort of we were gonna start to move forward on that and then everything happened with the closures and so it’s sort of just been tabled and sitting out there um i just wanted to get a gauge for where the other members were at in feelings about should we just pick this back up at the beginning of the next school year or should we continue forward trying to do it in an online zoom fashion

3:02:33 yeah yeah um i think we’re all anxious maybe anxious with the wrong word excited to get the new school name and i appreciate that i just think right now there’s so much loans and just trying to survive on a day-to-day basis i don’t know you know i think this deserves some focus from the community and i just am concerned that maybe people can’t focus on it right now because they’re just focused on kind of getting through

3:03:12 the day um and i just think it’s it’s a big decision for the community for the school committee and this building’s going to be here for 50 plus years and i think it just deserves some some quality attention that i don’t know as a community we can provide right now thanks megan that’s my two cents

3:03:37 yes i am i don’t i think we’ve actually been handling all everything very very well i mean we plan 40 some odd million dollar budgets and build 54 million dollar schools via zoom um and we’re doing it well um so i i don’t necessarily think that there’s a reason to continue to kick this can down the road we kind of started talking about it in october or november and here we are six seven months later we haven’t made a tremendous amount of progress um so i i would at some point like to move forward on this i don’t know i mean obviously not at 9 50 at night but um but i i would like to move forward on this i think that it’s long overdue

3:04:30 well i i just like to uh reiterate megan’s sentiments i think uh focused on a lot a lot of other things it’s going to be uh another 14 months before the school’s open and i think it’s the last thing that we need to focus on so but when the time presents itself if we can do it by a zoom or if we want to have a community meeting or we can get together um and we have time to address it on our agenda and it presents itself let’s uh as sarah says let’s try and move forward but pretty low on the totem pole right now

3:05:21 um i um i we had we had a comment from one of the teachers saying that i think it would be so great for the community to have a name i oh i didn’t know that that’s not i’m not reading this because of the second line i agree with sarah fox i didn’t see that before i started reading it would um help provide some positive energy right now and i’m sure people would love uh for you to move forward that was from one of the teachers rachel lovett jen did you have any i would agree go ahead david nope no i i would agree with the the positive energy and i’ll just make one

3:06:07 comment i mean the next thing is coming up is the building project update and um most school projects if not all school projects have a groundbreaking ceremony and um we had started the process in the background uh cindy schieffer and emily um and working with gilbane on how groundbreaking ceremonies are done and you know it’s an opportunity to really um bring the community together and when you see how other towns have done it um whether the students are there with shovels or the the kids from the schools

3:06:53 or you have the band and um that’s certainly a missed opportunity that right now we won’t be able to do and um we we’ve thought about it as a you know how how can we do that to celebrate that but i i think i i you know i agree with sarah i think there’s positive energy that can come from naming the school and one of the other missed opportunities that we want to hopefully be able to do this summer or later this fall is to have a groundbreaking ceremony but everybody knows it’ll be um three or four months removed from the true groundbreaking ceremony but to uh really celebrate um what we’re doing over at the bell school

3:07:40 site to move it forward so i agree and if you know the opportunity presents itself where we can do do that to bring the community together with all that’s going on it would be a good opportunity to work on that yep yeah i mean i think um sarah i think that we we had done work with the community earlier this year had gotten sarah fox and i had worked on getting community input which we did presented that to the committee i think we had an opportunity at that time to probably have taken action and we didn’t um so i that’s fine if we want to you know punt this that that’s fine um i agree i don’t think it’s a top priority at this point necessarily i hope that we don’t lose sight of the fact that we did get community input

3:08:26 community input community input input and has been presented to the committee um as to what that is um and that that will be taken under consideration i guess for lack of a better word when the time comes um and i also think to your point david there’s always also a um usually a building topping as well yeah um so that might be opportunity versus the groundbreaking because by the time we talk this building hopefully you know we’re it might be in the middle of winter but we’ll be you know we’ll be um we’ll be a little further away this will be more in our view mirror and that could also be an opportunity to share with the community yeah no doubt all right so it kind of sounds like um the the general

3:09:13 leaning is to try to move forward on this before the end of the school year so um i will work with bill in looking at the reality of the um next few meetings and i will try to get it on to one of the meetings um i think we’re at the point where our next step would be for first to bring you know kind of based on the community feedback that was obtained that the school committee would bring their top choice individually each member would bring their top choice um present the background on why they feel strongly about that name and then we would receive a little bit more community input and vote at the meeting after that

3:10:03 so bill um hopefully i’m not frozen bill you and i maybe can discuss when that can happen

3:10:18 so oh wait i’m confused so sarah did you what were you saying we should move forward or wait i i didn’t yeah no it seems like the committee um would like to move forward generally um you know everybody kind of acknowledging it’s not the top priority right now but that you know we would kind of like to wrap it up um so i’ll i’ll work with bill offline to make sure that it can fit somewhere and that it can be given its due at a meeting in the future or two meetings i guess in the future but hopefully we can pull that off

3:11:06 sounds good to me sounds good all right um so that then brings us up to the school building project update so so uh school building project update um i think i can start with the most recent events first on monday the oac committee um was invited to come to the site after construction had ended at three o’clock and uh the superintendent was there michelle was there jason silva was there um i was able to attend and ralph wallace was not but it was just um

3:11:51 just amazing just uh i mean after being outside the fence literally uh zoom meetings for the last two months you know peering through the fence uh a few uh drone videos from jackatridge um just to be able to um be on the site and and sort of see how it’s all coming together um seeing how the blasting is moving forward one of the things that jumped out to me that was just we knew this going into the site selection was how amazing um the site selection was for the recreational space at the back of the school when you see the old school is now removed

3:12:37 removed removed and you can visualize where the new school will end and how much hard surface and soft surface they’ll be um and just how it’s all it’s all coming together it’s it’s been a real challenge i think for everyone from the opm to the architect uh who’s had to work remotely and work within covet 19 to the cm and all of our contractors who have had to work with the state guidelines that are in place hand washing stations um social distancing and and we are we’re i think we’re very we’re fortunate that

3:13:22 we’re not in a situation where the school is at the final stages and people are indoors working uh elbow to elbow so to speak right now it’s it’s um you know it’s groundwork and um it’s grub work and it’s blasting and they’re able to do the work that they’re doing so it’s um i think it’s really exciting that because um certainly we know that we wanted this school to open you know a year from now and um so far so good um things can change as as we move forward with the project but i think uh gilbane has been looking forward to um potential areas where we could experience delays

3:14:08 experience delays experience delays and i think we’re um probably three or four months away from where we would get to um you know part of the construction where we might need to consider that but hopefully the situation will have improved by then so i just want to give uh you know kudos to everybody i mean uh you know gilbane has uh has really stepped up to keep the project on schedule um it’s worth noting the blasting has uh since all of the pre-inspections were done there has been i think this is the third week of blasting and today uh there were two blasts that

3:14:54 took place and so far so good there’s been um i would characterize it as three neighbors that i know of um two of which that one that i met with personally with the opm on monday and uh one yesterday that i spoke with that is actually um about 750 yards outside the radius but um once we touch base with him it was just you know he just needed to have a little bit more information about what was going on on the site um additionally it’s really worth noting it is a town project and when you look at blasting as an example we need to have the you know that’s really the fire

3:15:41 department’s purview and captain rice is on site for all of the blasting that takes place and the measuring and monitoring um we made a decision last week that um they would stop traffic for instance from going down jane road because it’s right outside the fence and chief piccarello stepped up to provide you know a detail to uh just stop traffic when was needed um the water department has been working um hand in hand with john bartecki and gilbane because there’s a major water line that that goes across the property line

3:16:28 from basically uh you know at the corner of jane road over to dartmouth road and they’ve been actively engaged and the water they were able to get um you know the water lines need to go in first because they’re the deepest and so amy’s been really working with the town jason silva helping with all of the um permitting and everything that’s going on so it’s just been um it’s just been a really good team effort everybody seems to be working together and i the next major milestone for the project is the 60 um cds that are being completed um

3:17:13 on i think it’s may 11th but we do have some final bids that are uh for work that’s coming in on the 14th so that will be another key milestone for the project and um you know so far things are things are looking good i mean bill and michelle you can comment you were there on monday you’ve been on the oac meetings but it seems to be uh moving [Music] moving forward and it’s and it’s been uh in light of everything that’s going on i think it’s a really bright spot that we have for the town

3:17:52 i would agree david uh given the circumstances uh i give a lot of credit to to gail bang in particular uh for uh keeping the project moving forward and i think we’re making very good progress excellent fantastic uh jen you’ve got your hand raised um yeah um oh sarah fox are you you know i’m on here i i had a few questions but you can go first okay i just you just popped up that’s right um um okay great so david thanks for that update um you indicated that the construction drawings are

3:18:38 drawings are drawings are going to be the 60 drawings are due on may 11th basically kind of right around the corner um so then what’s the next phase after that does it go to what 90 or 100 wells wells i think before we move ahead one of the key junctures with the 60 is the next estimate so they’ll there’ll be a uh construction estimate that comes both from um left field and from the architect and so but the the thing that’s different about having gilbane on board is when we get to that point it’s estimated that about i think

3:19:27 35 to 45 of the project will be will have been bought out so in other words the estimate what remains we know 45 of the costs and what remains is 65 of the cost to be um estimated out so um that’s the key juncture and and so far as we’ve gone through whether it’s been the dirt work or the steel or um we’re getting ready to award some inspectional services that everything remains uh in line and it seems like there probably is an opportunity that we might be benefiting from the environment that we’re in right now where um

3:20:12 um um some of the bids where other contractors funding is uncertain but where our funding is given and it’s already been approved that some of the vendors are being very aggressive in uh in approaching so i think the first thing is to get that estimate finalized and then you’re right the next step would be in mid to late june would be um looking at the projected work plan here it’s um yeah it’s late it’s mid-june that we get the final 90 estimates estimates in and that’s correct so yeah so then um okay so that’s great so

3:20:59 you’re saying so right now basically because we’ve had we’ve had some decent amount of site work so at this point you’re saying we are um we are so far our site work budget is in line we haven’t gone over anything at this point all right you know it’s fair to say our site our site work is it is in line there’s been a little bit of uh additional costs related to i guess they’re saying the rock is harder than they anticipated but um within the monies that were allocated for the site work i think it was um you know that we should be able to cover those costs and there we could run over by about fifteen thousand dollars

3:21:44 and then there was a little bit of um additional cost related to some of the top soil and the loam that needs to be removed from the site and uh there was a small portion of it that had some um heavy metals in it but it was still within the guidelines of the original budget and that was all being worked out so um you know so far so good another another point of interest is you know another thing like bill said uh kudos to gilbane as an example it’s hard to believe in today’s day and age but all of the um asbestos-related materials were designated to go to ohio as an example in the contract

3:22:31 and with covid19 um the vendor that would have taken that product to ohio would not have had anything to haul back from ohio and it would have increased the cost so gilbane shifted gears and was able to find a landfill in vermont that would accept the material that would keep us on schedule and not provide any additional cost so you know there are a lot of things that are constantly in play here but um you know so so far so far so good so okay great so um so the there’s a lot of moving parts now that

3:23:17 we’re into it and some things come in on budget some things go over somewhere under so that i’m assuming is in some sort of a financial reporting i went through the one from last month but um i couldn’t really see all that so i wonder whether you know maybe i could talk about it offline like with david sandon or something just so i can under you know it’s 10 o’clock at night and you know whatever but um just to understand you know just to look at just a kind of a high level on a monthly basis i’d just like to know just this financial snapshot just the you know kind of no i agree and and um since we haven’t met in uh three or four weeks that that will be we’ll make sure that we’ll have a summary uh

3:24:03 next week on the 14th to to cover that for everyone well whatever this building whatever the building committee gets we can get i mean i you know that i’m okay i’m okay with that right um and then just going back for my last question going back to the construction documents so we’re at 60 percent and then we’re going to be at 90 in june so that would i would assume means that a lot of the finishes um the epiphany all that stuff is will be completed by that time so i guess i mean are the groups able to meet offline um or their or whatever individuals are meeting with gene on some of that stuff um well in the environment that we’re in

3:24:50 right now the the focus has been getting the last uh packages out to the market and so i think once once those early packages are done and uh those last submittals are on the street right now with the proposals are um like i say i think they’re doing by the 11th and then we’ll know what the pricing is uh hopefully by the 14th then we can move forward on some of those final pieces of the design for sure and there will be some further engagement with with people in the in the committee and and everyone else for sure okay great thank you

3:25:38 hi i apologize ahead of time for there’s a crying child in the background but um but but my question is will will the committee see the 60 um cds now that now that they’ve been submitted um and also who since we haven’t met as an interior subcommittee um who’s specking the finishes that he’s putting in the um if it’s not someone from our side of things well i think i’m just trying to review that the projected workflow work plan and um

3:26:27 just let me look here and see for some of the interior finishes but um so the early work early works packages and then pardon me and permitting

3:27:01 updates i’m just trying to look here um design updates that you know that’s that’s a good question sarah and we we certainly i think for uh next week that’s a that’s a good question that we can um follow up on with gene to make sure that you know we’re addressing some of the interior finishes you know as as they go forward but once again to keep the project on schedule some of these early works packages related to whether it was site work steel um you know exterior finishes and some of the contracts that were being awarded and then when we have the estimate also that will play a part hopefully there won’t be any ve that’s required based on the way the

3:27:48 project is moving forward and we can you know the school will have all of the things that were originally designed in it so i think we’ll be able to work on that as we as we go forward but that’s a good question i’ll um bring that forward to make sure that we can have some discussions um about that when we when we meet next week absolutely thank you david all right all right that brings us to closing business bill i think we did have one kind of last minute edition for under that we were going to put under new business um

3:28:48 uh as a follow-up from uh an executive session discussion uh on the memorandum of agreement with the uh teachers association uh zhong and i uh worked on making uh some adjustments as we’ve discussed uh i did send the document out you may not have seen it but i do have it on the screen so we can walk through it um and joan has been hanging with us since the beginning of the meeting so uh she is available to do that as well um let’s see oh man do i not have

3:29:39 intent for us to vote on this i believe so no we you know if it is the adjustments are acceptable we’d like to take a vote

3:30:33 bill i have it i can share my screen if you’d rather

3:30:53 just while bill’s looking for that i just want to say thanks to joan for hanging in with us yeah i know i’m exhausted so thank you yep i agree well well yeah sarah can you pull it up on yours maybe i mean i didn’t i have the email that you had sent us earlier just before the meeting bill can you open the attachments that are on that email yeah and share them

3:31:58 uh uh i’m sorry is it up yeah can you see it

3:32:13 yeah i can see it yeah that’s it so we have this and then we have the appendix a why don’t i take you through uh the agreement uh first so so just a couple of changes uh you’ll see there on the first page we change that language if an aggregate prior to june 30th of 2020 and then if you go to the next page jen

3:32:50 so we’ve just deleted that with the note that this matter will be uh determined under a separate agreement and that’s what we discussed a couple days ago and those are the only two changes to that piece okay sarah if you could bring up the appendix a yep all right all right so if you scroll to the second page of appendix a

3:33:38 so first if if you recall from the discussion the other night

3:33:46 on the on the moa document those two changes were uh the committee indicated they they would like to see those so so that that’s that and then we talked about the language and so we add language related to the revised deci guidelines

3:34:08 so so you can read that in line with the two main focus areas that were included in the uh revised guidelines released on april 4th teachers will work with hard time seeing it teachers will will work with administrator and others in continuing to improve the recommended elements of a quality remote learning program including a focus on teaching the content standards most critical for students success in the next grade level

3:34:54 and then to continue to move our students towards uh whatever that says it’s so small i’m having a hard time reading so and then we added the general comment below

3:35:12 so it says to continue to move all-star sarah yeah um it says to can you hear me i can hear you okay so to continue the second point on there um um i don’t know how to do that because it’s um can everybody else read it can you see what it says i can see what it says okay good so you can we don’t have to necessarily read it to you okay yeah we can read it yeah i see it i’m very close to the screen now too um so to continue to move all students towards successful engagement in a remote learning with a focus on

3:35:59 addressing the fundamental needs and then teachers will begin including in their lesson slash assignments content from the two learning standards identified in the revised sd guidelines with the aim of best preparing students for success at the next grade level and then if we go to the third page

3:36:22 we changed um the use of live virtual video or teacher generated recorded content with students is encouraged as an opportunity to connect with and or to deliver content teachers will connect live with students at a minimum of once per week so we eliminated that whole issue of discouragement

3:36:58 um jen you have your hand raised um yeah am i on you oh my god i just quickly wanted to just for me we we read this the other night and these changes are exactly what we had talked about just for the folks from the public that are on there um i just figured we should just say that we had to um everyone can go through and read this once we approve it we’ll be on our website but basically it was just some changes we needed to make um re regarding covet and how it’s affected some of the um processes that teachers have um in their contract and that we also i mean the bigger the big portion of it was adding this appendix to talk about the remote learning plan because it’s a pretty significant um change in how we’re delivering you know content to our students so just an update for folks on the call

3:37:49 okay so okay so um can i get a motion to accept the um

3:38:02 accept the memorandum of agreement between the marblehead educational associate

3:38:13 as well as the appendix a to accompany that document jen moved jen moved a second megan second any other comments or questions on that

3:38:34 just thanks for your work on this bill and and joan and making the adjustments we talked about absolutely i think it looks good yeah it’s good to me too all right so we’ll call for a vote sarah gold yes megan taylor yes sarah fox yes david harris yes jen schaffner yes all right the motion carries 5-0 um um thank you joan um any other new business

3:39:14 all right then i will adjourn us at 10 28. thank you everyone everybody thanks thank you all good night good night